What is the difference between
Buddhist and Hindu enlightenment?
Answer clearly and logically.
(Spirituality and Oneness are almost the same as the Hindu oneness of non-dualism)
Yoga teachers obviously know (•‿•)v
Teachers who teach [Buddha's Awareness Meditation] in yoga classes, of course, know it clearly and logically.
You wouldn't say you don't know it, would you?
To answer, you need to clearly know the essence of both philosophies, but...
Actually, if you study a little yoga and mindfulness, you will always come across this question.
It's tough!
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Hinduism is the enlightenment of the oneness of Brahman and Atman!
vs.
Buddhism is the enlightenment of emptiness, the enlightenment of ZERO!
The difference between Hindu and Buddhist philosophy is how they handle the "I/self."
Hindu enlightenment is the oneness of Brahman and Atman.
In Hinduism, one practices to become one with the ultimate self, the Atman, which is the origin of all existence.
In Advaita Vedanta non-dualism, the ultimate self is the Paraatman, which is the immortal oneness that created the universe and the world.
The concept of "I" in yoga philosophy is the subject of cognition, called Purusha. Purusha is the eternal and immortal principle of existence. It is the seeing eye itself.
Union with the Purusha, is called Kaibalya, the self-sufficiency. When the mind is eliminated, all the perceived worlds, called Prakriti, disappear, and one becomes one with Ishvara, the god who rules the universe. In yoga, this Ishvara is the One after enlightenment
This infinitely expanding world begins with One, the immortal One called Parabrahman. That is why it is called Oneness.
Hindu enlightenment is to become the ultimate self that creates everything in this world, that is, THE ONE.
Hindu philosophy is a path to affirming this world.
This is also modern spiritual oneness!
Hindu enlightenment is
Oneness 1 to ∞.
Hinduism is the enlightenment of oneness, the one!
vs.
Buddhism is the emptiness,
the enlightenment of zero!
Buddhist enlightenment is the enlightenment of zero, of no self
All things are impermanent, all things are suffering,
all laws are selfless, Nirvana is serene
Buddhism does not accept religious a priori that cannot be verified. Therefore, it does not accept the existence of atman or soul, which is a religious definition that can never be proven.
[If it exists, bring it out and show it to us.]
No matter where you look in the physical world or the world of the mind, you will not find atman, soul, or self.
Therefore, Buddhism practices observation meditation and vipassana meditation to discover that there is no self.
If you can discover this through meditation, it is said to be the first stage of enlightenment, or pre-flowing fruit.
The Buddhist concept of [self] is [non-self].
The word emptiness is always one that comes up when talking about Mahayana Buddhism. So, what does it mean?
It is said that emptiness in Mahayana Buddhism is not nothingness.
Nothingness is a concept that can only exist once there is the concept of existence. It is a relative concept that only has meaning when two opposing concepts exist.
Emptiness is said to be a concept that encompasses both existence and non-existence.
空＞有無
空＞存在＝生死
Emptiness＞Existence
In Mahayana Buddhism, the self is an entity with no fixed content, with a state of constant flux, essentially empty of content.
I am emptiness.
However, this is a word based on the philosophy of Nagarjuna of Mahayana Buddhism, not the words of Buddha.
Buddha did not say emptiness, but explained the concept of emptiness with the words impermanence of all things and non-self of all things.
There was a very important reason why he did not use the word emptiness.
What is non-self of all things? → What is emptiness in Mahayana Buddhism?
For example, it is like the eye of a typhoon, which appears temporarily only when there is a typhoon, but is empty of substance. This temporary appearance due to causation is called causal provisional harmony.
Buddhism does not aim to become the ultimate being, the supreme one, as in Hindu philosophy, but to transcend existence and non-existence, life and death, existence and non-existence.
A practitioner before attaining liberation lives in this phenomenal world. It is a world of birth, death, and reincarnation.
A liberated person, or an arhat, transcends even the one God, the immortal One, who can be said to be the ultimate being that creates everything, and crosses over to a world where there are no ones or zeros. तथागत, tathāgata, means one who is able to leave like that. In the Madhyamaka school of Mahayana Buddhism, this is expressed as emptiness, shunya, or zero. ★It is zero in the phenomenal world, and it is also zero in the world of nirvana and serenity.
The eye of a typhoon is an empty void, even when the typhoon is rotating violently. It is zero because there is nothing there.
When the typhoon disappears, the eye disappears and becomes empty.
Therefore, nirvana and serenity are also zero.
Emptiness means that even in this deluded world,
emptiness = zero = shunya,
and in the world of enlightenment, emptiness = zero = shunya.
The Buddha himself preached about emptiness using the words "impermanence of all things" and "non-self in all things," without using the metaphysical concept of emptiness. This was done with careful consideration so that his disciples would not create objects to become attached to, but later Buddhist disciples turned it into philosophy and metaphysics.
What is Sati, the consciousness of awareness?
The self that sees is not in the object that is seen. The seeing eye cannot see itself directly. For that, a mirror is needed.
If we go back to the moon, we won't be able to view the moon. かぐや姫
The person that sees is nowhere to be found in the object that is being seen, even if one searches to the ends of the universe, from the depths of hell, or even in the highest heaven.
Also, the self that is seeing arises only when there is an object to be seen. When the object to be seen disappears, such as during deep sleep or after death, the self disappears.
The object that is seen is the five aggregates.
The five aggregates are everything, both the material world and the world of the mind.
The five aggregates are also the five separate currents of the mind.
To use an analogy,
it is like five layers of clouds surrounding the eye of a typhoon.
The center is the eye of the typhoon. The typhoon disappears when the swirling clouds disappear. I am like the eye of the typhoon, and essentially I am the empty sky.
Therefore,
Emptiness Nirvana and Nirvana Calmness are also non-self.
Inside the innermost consciousness of the five clouds, there are three more layers of vortexes, which can be thought of as the Alaya-vijnana, Manas, and surface consciousness.
This is just an analogy.
[The eight consciousnesses of the Yogacara school are not recognized in Theravada Buddhism.]
The five aggregates of non-self means that there is no seer, or you, anywhere in the world you see.
The seer is not among the things seen.
Therefore, you cannot find yourself, take yourself out, and verify yourself.
Buddhism does not take this kind of [self] that cannot be proven or verified into consideration.
Things that cannot be verified cannot be said to exist or not, so they are ignored.
However, we know that there is a gaze that is seeing. Without a gaze that is seeing, observation meditation is not possible.
We observe in order to discover that the self is not anywhere in the five aggregates.
The five aggregates - the body, sensing, the conceptual function of thought, the will of action, and the knowing function of consciousness - are all objects of recognition that can be observed.
The gaze that observes these is sati, or mindful consciousness.
When we maintain an observing gaze, sati,
we can remove the illusory glasses of subjectivity and view our own mind and external information objectively.
Most of our suffering is caused by subjectivity.
If we can observe things by removing subjectivity, we can avoid the suffering created by subjectivity.
Seeing with an observing gaze, sati, is called right view.
Common Questions
Q: If Atman = Soul = I does not exist,
who can reach Nirvana?
A: The "I" is consciousness that arises only in the recognition of duality. Existence and non-existence, life and death, being and not-being,
spiritual principles and material principles, yin and yang are the world of duality.
The "I" is the recognition of duality that exists because of the existence of others.
★Enlightenment and liberation is about transcending the recognition of duality, so when you attain enlightenment, the dualistic concept of "I" and "other" does not exist. In that sense, Nirvana is also non-self. There is no "I" in the dualistic consciousness of ordinary people. A world where the boundary between "I" and "other" does not exist is the enlightenment of Nirvana.
Q: If there is no Atman, or soul,
who will be reincarnated?
who will receive the retribution of karma?
A: There is no fixed, immortal ball like an "eternal soul," but there is the five aggregates of impermanent mind that create life.
Elder Nagasena points out that even though they are things that change, they are integrated into one as they are based on the same foundation.
The five aggregates of impermanent mind can be compared to a river.
It is not a river on the earth, so it has no riverbanks.
It might also be compared to a jet stream.
A river has the appearance of flowing, but the contents of the flow are always changing and never fixed.
This flow of mind creates reincarnation.
If you look at a photo of Tokyo 100 years ago and a photo of Tokyo today, they are so different that they seem like completely different countries.
However, this change was created by the flow of Japan's history, and it is the same country.
It's the same with humans. The flow of the mind creates a completely different me in the future. The flow is the same, but the content is different each time, so the me that appears is different. The me from when I was in elementary school is no longer here, but that me has changed and become who I am today.
The president of a company bought a training camp for the company on a loan. Later, another person became the president. This president refused to pay the loan for the training camp.
The reason given was that since I didn't buy it, I had no obligation to pay.
However, in court, he was ordered to pay.
The flow of the mind, the five attachments, that creates reincarnation corresponds to the company in this metaphor. The previous president was the "me" from the previous life, and the new president is the "me" from this life.
In this way, the results of bad and good deeds are created by the flow of the mind, even without a reincarnated ball like the atman or soul.
If there is an eternal, unchanging, immortal soul, why does the "I" that appears change? Both the mind and the world are impermanent, so they can change.
The "I" of conscious consciousness is not an eternal, immortal entity,
it disappears during deep sleep and disappears with death.
It is like the waves of the ocean, appearing and then disappearing.
The "I" appears temporarily as a function of life to protect life.
During deep sleep, just as the six senses disappear,
the "I" of conscious consciousness also disappears.
However, the flow of consciousness that creates the "I"
continues.
The tangerine tree will bear fruit this year, just as it did last year.
The "I" is like a fruit, and during deep sleep the fruit falls and disappears from the tree.
The "I" appears in dreams when you wake up the next day,
and continues even after you wake up.
The trunk of a tangerine can be likened to the flow of the mind.
Also, the disappearance of the "I" during deep sleep is a short one, but the disappearance of the "I" after death is a long one.
However, in both cases, it is the "flow of the mind" which is likened to a trunk that gives rise to the "I".
For the best analogy,
please read the sutra "King Milinda's Questions".
The "flow of the mind"
does not have an atman, or soul, which is the subject of reincarnation.
The seeds of karma are clouds of unmanifested will swirling around in the mind like a typhoon.
Unlike the concept of the causal body, there is not a fixed jar where unmanifested karma data is stored.
The Alaya-vijnana is almost the same concept as the causal body.
If we accept the existence of Alaya-vijnana, it is the same as accepting the Atman, which is the core of reincarnation.
Therefore, Yogacara is a different school from Theravada Buddhism.
What is mistaken for Atman, or soul,
is like the eye of a typhoon, and will disappear if the whirlpool of karma disappears.
That is why Buddhism says "no self in all dharmas."
Dharma is an existence within the mind, in other words, a concept.
The mind is like a typhoon or a galaxy,
which is said to be rotating.
At the center is the eye of the typhoon (emptiness),
and the flow of consciousness, action (will), perception, feeling, and form (body) rotate in that order.
